These best friend-founded companies are leading the online retail revolution.

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We’ve been Of a Kind fans since they launched their very first edition back in the fall of 2010. Touted as the world’s first Tumblr store, the site originally featured one designer a week, with a series of stories about the designer leading up to the launch of a limited edition item you could buy exclusively from Of a Kind.

Since then, the brainchild of BFFs Claire Mazur and Erica Cerulo has grown and grown (and grown). The pair now releases three editions a week, publishes all sorts of supplementary editorial content, and even put together a couple of cookbooks with recipes from their designers (they’ve worked with close to 200 at this point, by the way). Next up? A platform for brands to sell their full collections via Of a Kind.

"We had no idea where we would go with the business when we started. We just hoped that we would be able to keep it going for a while and make some money doing it," says Mazur. "But what we quickly figured out was that our audience was really discovering and falling in love with these designers through our site. They weren’t just buying the limited edition pieces, they were going off and searching for a matching bracelet and earrings." As such, she and Cerulo identified a need to showcase more than just their small batch runs from brands like Lizzie Fortunato, Creatures of Comfort, and Thomas Sires.

They also realized designers needed help with e-commerce. "For small businesses, it can be such a game changer to have the increased cash flow, the bigger profit margins, and just to be able to interact directly with their customers," Mazur explains. "The designers all knew that, but really were struggling to get sales on their site." Enter: Of a Kind Collections.

Currently in public beta, Of a Kind Collections will debut its full version (which will be rolled into the main Of a Kind site) mid-year. A dozen designers — including Dusen Dusen and Wren — are currently on board, showcasing all their goods; more will be joining the lineup in the coming months.

"One of the things that’s been really fascinating for us over the two years that we’ve been running Of a Kind is that we are a small business that works with other small businesses," says Cerulo. "We’ve been able to see what needs we have and then what needs the designers have. They might struggle with marketing. They struggle with press. They struggle with tech things and customer service. Our goal is to be able to take as much of that off of their plates as possible, so they can really focus on design and production and putting out the best pieces that they possibly can."

Photo: Jamie Beck

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Sari Azout and Sari Bibliowicz — you can call them Sari A. and Sari B. — have been friends since childhood. Native Colombians, both of them headed to the States for college (Azout to Brown and Bibliowicz to NYU), and landed in New York after graduation.

Moving into the same building as five other friends meant one very important thing: "a revolving infinite closet between us," as Bibliowicz puts it. "We all started exchanging clothing, and I realized that something I wore once or twice, I didn’t want to wear it again. But between all of our friends, we had so many amazing things! Why do we have to keep going out and shopping and spending money when we have so many great things sitting in our closets that are not even being worn?"

It was this question that led to the founding of Bib + Tuck. Here’s how it works: users upload pictures of items they’re willing to part with, assigning them a "virtual price" (that’s right, no actual money is exchanged). This is the Bib. When someone chooses to purchase your item — this is the Tuck — you receive credit that can be used for your own Tucks on the site. Think of it as asynchronous bartering, but with free shipping and an incredibly extensive array of on-trend things to pick from. Marc Jacobs? Rag & Bone? H&M? The gang’s all there.

"From the beginning, we made a very calculated decision to make it about shopping without spending," says Azout. "There are a lot of sites where you can sell your clothes and get money for it, but I don’t get a lot of satisfaction from dropping Alexander Wang booties and getting $50 or $60 for them."

Besides the lack of pocket-burning, what sets Bib + Tuck apart is the social aspect. Users are encouraged to include stories about their items in the listings, and you can even follow specific members’ closets. "Introducing the social element to this, and removing money out of the equation, really makes it about fashion, creativity, expression, and fun," Azout explains.

With 2,500 active members and a wait list of 5,000, Bib + Tuck show no signs of slowing. As for what’s next, a mobile app, a charity campaign, and a mini-capsule collection of repurposed clothing are all in the works. Says Bibliowicz, "We’re thinking about how can we leverage this brand to bring about sustainable consumption and further this mission of doing more with less."

Photo courtesy of Bib + Tuck

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Working side by side as merchandisers at J.Crew is what set Katie Finnegan and Erica Bell up for careers in fashion, as well as an enduring friendship. It’s no coincidence that the pair ended up as management consultants in the retail sector at the same company years after they met, and that ideas about how to fix what seemed like a broken system started percolating. The target: online sales.

"We were getting hundreds of emails a day about sales, and we never had access to the right offer at the right time," says Finnegan. "We started brainstorming about how we could pull this relevant content our way and see the offers on the products we were actually interested in. We were seeing a lot of things pushing us into impulse purchases and buyer’s remorse, and that wasn’t sustainable."

The answer to inbox overload and deal-missing was Hukkster, a bookmarklet that sits in your browser (think Pinterest’s "Pin It" button). "It’s about maintaining authentic shopping behavior," Finnegan explains. "You go on the sites you love, and when you’re on an item you’re interested in, you press the Hukk It button to capture your size and color preference. Then on the backend, we track that item and let you know when it goes on sale."

How did non-programmers build up such a sophisticated platform? A lot of hard work. "As shoppers, we wanted this to exist overnight, but we didn’t have the means to get there," says Bell. "So, we rolled up our sleeves and kind of became the platform ourselves. We found six of our friends who were within our target demographic, and asked if we could track items they wanted to buy online and let them know when they went on sale."

And track they did, via site scanning and an Excel spreadsheet. Their test group responded enthusiastically to their sale alerts, and the pair realized they were truly saving their friends time and money — not to mention creating an experience that could be brought to a much wider audience.

Having launched last May, Hukkster now works on over 1,000 sites, including Shopbop, ASOS, and, of course, their old stomping grounds, J.Crew. The system also keeps track of coupon codes and special promotions for you, making sure you don’t miss out on that extra 20% off, while keeping your inbox clear of marketing emails that don’t apply to your would-be purchases.

"Katie and I are avid online shoppers and spent our careers in the retail industry. Had we not had those kind of learning behind us, it would have been a lot harder for us to come up with the solutions that we did," says Bell. "We want to be your online shopping manager. We’re trying to make online shopping more efficient."

Photo courtesy of Hukkster

Fashion

Meet The Startups That Are Changing The Way You Shop

These best friend-founded companies are leading the online retail revolution.

It's hard to believe that not terribly long ago, online shopping was considered a novelty. Now we rely on the internet to buy everything, from dresses to groceries. As ticking off items on your wish list with the click of a mouse has become the norm, a huge wave of startups has invaded the shopping space.

The good news is that the majority of these sites exist to make your life easier. The bad news is that there are so many sites to choose from, it can be difficult to find the really great ones! That's where we come in. Allow us to introduce you to three very different startups (all founded by stylish best friends!) that are shaking up the online shopping scene.